Monday, February 17, 2014

Tube strike success

by Daphne Liddle

TRANSPORT unions RMT and TSSA last Tuesday suspended planned strike
action by London Underground (LU) workers just a few hours before a
second 48-hour Tube strike was about to begin.

The first strike worked; it force LU management to suspend drastic
changes that would cut nearly 1,000 jobs and close all ticket offices to
allow for a negotiation process with the unions at Acas (the advisory,
conciliation and arbitration service).

The proposed changes have not been defeated but forcing the management,
backed by London Mayor Boris Johnson, to delay the changes to allow the
negotiations to take place is a significant victory for the unions.

It is a total rebuttal of Johnson’s high-handed approach and leaves him
humiliated after his constant refusal to meet and talk with the unions.

Labour north London MP Emily Thornberry challenged the Mayor on the
BBC’s Sunday Politics London show, saying: “How mad is it that you
haven’t spoken to [Bob Crow] for five years? He has to call you up on
LBC to talk to you. It’s not right.

“It’s nonsense why the leader of London is not talking to the leader of the Underground union.

“It’s just the most ridiculous bit of willy-waving I’ve seen. It’s just macho nonsense not to talk to the leader of the union.”

The result of the negotiations at Acas will probably be a compromise but
it is a lot better than just giving into change by diktat.

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said: “After two days of intensive and
detailed discussions through the offices of Acas we have now received
proposals that halt the implementation of the job cuts set out in the
HR1 document which gives us the opportunity to discuss all of the issues
away from the pressure cooker.

“We now have a golden opportunity to look again in detail at all of the
concerns we have raised about the impact of the cuts on our members and
the services that they provide to Londoners. That is exactly what we
have been calling for throughout this dispute.

“RMT is happy to discuss any issues with LU through the machinery of
negotiation and we are glad that we have now got back to where we should
have been right at the start of this process.

“It is unfortunate that we were forced and provoked into a dispute that
we never wanted and we are now in a position to move on with the clear
understanding that our action is suspended but if there is any further
attempt to impose change from above the action will go back on.”

A statement from Acas read: “We welcome the news that the proposed
industrial action has been withdrawn. Thanks all involved for their hard
work/commitment over intensive talks with us.”

TSSA posted on Twitter: “We’ve suspended Tube strike as have agreed a
process where all our serious concerns over safety and job losses can be
addressed. Pleased that agreement on process lets us suspend strike
immediately and cancel it later when agreement reaches us formally.”

In a letter to RMT members Bob Crow said that:

LU had agreed a station- by-station review of ticket office closures, which could mean that some will stay open;

LU will not implement its proposals until further consultations are held on 4th April;

During the discussion period, LU will put on hold all voluntary severance applications received.

He said the negotiations would include a full equality impact assessment of the proposed changes.

Crow added: “This is what we were asking for all along and thanks to the
support and solidarity you have shown, sense has finally prevailed.
Nevertheless we remain firmly against these cuts which we will continue
to resist in our discussions with management. I will be sure to keep
members fully informed of any further developments.”

And he told reporters he had no regrets about the strike: “They weren’t
taking us seriously until we called the strike action and we got more
done over that period of time when the strike action took place,” he
said. “I think having a two-day strike was absolutely crucial.”

One union official was arrested during the strike for calling a
strike-breaker a scab. Mark Harding, the Branch Secretary of Hammersmith
and City RMT was ordered to keep away from further strike action until
the case is settled.

The union is calling for the charges to be dropped and accused the
police of making the arrest in order to intimidate other strikers.